Good morning and welcome in everybody. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that I wanted to tell you a little story.
Many years ago before I was baptized into the Christian faith, a friend and I were walking down the Midway at the county Fair. After playing a few games at the arcade and shooting a few targets with some air rifles, we decided to eat our lunch and check out some of the attractions in the amusement park area. But as we strolled around, we noticed that there were not very many people there, possibly because it was the middle of the week and the wrong time of day. Eventually we walked up to one of the rides, which stood completely dormant and didn’t have anybody in line. It was called the zipper, which is basically a cage with a seat inside. In some ways it was like stepping inside of a huge minnow trap and being locked inside. Once this large machine was set into motion, it created a significant amount of G-Forces, and flipped you around like a pancake on the grill. With a little bit of extra effort you could even make the cart swing faster, simply by shifting around the weight of your body. But when we were on the ride, we couldn’t see the operator for a long period of time, and wondered if he had walked off for a cup of coffee. We were on that ride so long that we eventually got seriously worried that we would never get off! Eventually it began to slow down, and when we finally stepped out onto the loading platform, it took all that we could, to prevent ourselves from throwing up.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
Sometimes people do things that will make you sick to your stomach, but some of them will treat Jesus the same way. Because they have a lukewarm and mediocre faith, He is going to spew them right out of His mouth.
Revelation 3:15-16 (KJB) I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
To spew something means to expel large quantities rapidly and forcibly, and some synonyms are to throw up or to vomit. When we talk about mediocrity, it means that something is of average quality and is not particularly good or bad. It’s ordinary or average, being right in the middle. Another definition describes it as falling into the middle range of performance or skill. Some people settle for being in the middle of the road, but as a Christian, God wants each of us to stand up and be a bright light to the world! God demands nothing less than our best efforts, because He hates mediocrity. Some people have been educated in the teachings of scripture, but rather than excelling in the knowledge and the gifts that they have been given, they abide in the ranks of substandardism, becoming lazy with their abilities. True men of God will be extraordinary men, raising the bar to a higher level, and pushing forward towards moral and Spiritual excellence. Those who are lukewarm in their faith have not fully dedicated their lives to God, and this behavior sickens the Lord Jesus so much that He is going to spit them right out of His mouth.
Hebrews 10:38 (KJB) Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
One time I was coming back from Rapid City, South Dakota, and during the trip I stopped off for dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Sioux falls. After supper, I paid the bill and got back out on the highway, but it was only about a half an hour later, somewhere up by Luverne, that I quickly jumped out of my vehicle and began to wretch uncontrollably in the ditch. When I finally got home and took some pictures in the mirror, you couldn’t see any of the whites in my eyes, because all of the blood vessels had been broken due to the severe vomiting.
It makes the Lord absolutely sick to His stomach when people claim to serve Him and then choose to live lives of mediocrity. It’s like a dad who pushes you hard to excel because he knows what you are capable of doing, but then you kick back and settle for being average instead. These types of people are lazy, having the ability to do so much more, but choose to do so much less. Men of God must be a cut above the rest, and those who are lazy in their faith need to have a fire lit beneath them!
Revelation 2:5 (KJB) Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
Why settle for a “C” average when you have the potential to get straight “A”? Why settle for placing third in a marathon, when you have the ability to win! God wants us to be high achievers, after all, there is no higher goal that one could strive after then the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:14 (KJB) I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
To “press” means to forcefully push or thrust firmly forward, which is something that we must do diligently if we are ever going to reach the Divine goal that God has set forth in His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus suffered and died on the cross so that each of us would have the opportunity to become something different than what we used to be in the past, and we must take that incredible Gift of Grace and prove by our actions that we can do the things that He requests! God is pushing us to be the very best that we can be, and you know what, we can do it, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and complete submission to the will of God. We must never let Him down, which ultimately can happen because of one’s own ambivalence, neglect, or half-hearted attempts at the Christian Life.
As a child of God, a Christian must be extraordinary, filled with a passionate desire to serve Him from the heart. The Lord hates when people try to serve Him in the lukewarmness of mediocrity, because that quality is contrary to everything that He is. To please Him from our hearts, we must be high achievers and reflect His high standards of living in our daily lives. There is no room for settling for average in the Christian Life, because the truth is that it makes our precious Lord sick to His stomach, something that I am reminded of, when I think back to that afternoon,…..
…….….Riding the Zipper
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you all, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody.
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